My recommenders want to know how long the common app recommendations should be, because the maximum number of words is 1000 and the minimum is 0(this is for the three questions on the common app). Also, one question is “What are the first words that come to your mind to describe this student?”. I mean, it wants some words, maybe some senteces, but then why would they put max:1000 words?
There is a maximum because no admissions officer wants to read a twenty page LOR about one student. 1,000 words should be plenty.